Williams explained the origins of this seasoning trio New Orleans cooks know as the trinity—or, according to Williams, “the trinity plus the pope” if you include garlic. As Benson chopped and sautéed, Williams told how this iconic Louisiana dish was originally concocted of day-old rice and whatever a family had left over. “Jambalaya wasn’t something you’d serve to a guest,” she says. “And it wasn’t anything you’d see on a menu in a restaurant. It was always different, because today you might have a little sausage and chicken left over but next week it might be seafood. It all went in the pot.” Before the class began, Williams took an informal poll of attendees asking how they’d heard about the museum. When no two people proffered the same answer, she was amazing to me that in a city where food is so important to our culture a museum like this didn’t already exist. But we were working without a model and making it up as we went.” Warner, Konigsmark and Williams set out in search of a location. Then Katrina hit and put everything on hold. As the dust began to settle after the storm, they found a space in the Riverwalk in the CBD, which formerly held The Limited store, and set up a rudimentary exhibit space. “We did our first (cooking) demos on a tiny, single-burner stove,” says Benson. “We had no water source, so we had to haul pitchers of water from the bathroom and lug our dishes home to wash at night.” They dreamed of larger quarters that could accommodate a working restaurant, a bar and an authentic demo kitchen and allow them room to expand the project. “We wanted a place where people could grab >>
photos: Thomas B. Growden
photo: Stephen Binns
Liz Williams.
happy to see that “everything is working” getting the word out about one of New Orleans’ newest attractions. Williams gave the class a quick lowdown on the journey that landed SoFAB in the historic Dryades Market building in this up-and-coming section of the city. A former military JAG officer and former CEO of the University of New Orleans Foundation, Williams more than cut her teeth orchestrating the opening of both the National World War II Museum and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art. “I discovered I love putting together museums,” she says. Then it was time to pay homage to her love of all things culinary. Together with locals Matt Konigsmark and Gina Warner, she began researching this new challenge, looking for other museums that “celebrate and explore culinary history, roots of local food and drink and the cultural traditions and communities that form around food.” They found there weren’t any. “We found commercial museums like the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta and The Hershey Story Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which are dedicated to one food or one brand, but none like what we envisioned,” she says. “It’s
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